Articles filed under Real Estate

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  Resurfacing, refinishing or replacing — which is right for your tub?
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM Homes Sunday CP...3 ways to a better bathtub to be localized by Lee Filas
  

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  Downsizing makes container gardening easier
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM Container gardening is growing smaller. Suppliers are downsizing this season with easier-to-use trough planters, raised beds, pots or bags. It’s an effective way to produce edibles or blooms in tight spaces. One of the leaders in this less-is-better concept is EarthBox, a Scranton, Pa., manufacturer of self-watering plant containers.
  

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  Modern botanicals feel like spring
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM If you followed the spring fashion shows, you noticed floral motifs blooming all over the place. Diane Von Furstenberg used feminine pastels. Peter Som used digital florals in over-saturated, intense pigments. Timo Weiland created watery digital prints that floated down the catwalk. And inspiration from the runway often finds its way into our rooms. So it’s no surprise that in home decor this spring, botanicals are big. You’ll find everything from restrained nature motifs to saucy florals, executed in painterly hues, photo prints and pop art graphics.
  

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  Rental forum: Drug test for tenants may not fly
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM Q. A prospective tenant would like to rent a cottage on our property. We would like to know if we could ask the prospective tenant to submit to random drug testing as a condition of tenancy. We have heard about law enforcement seizing property where drug use is prevalent and we just don’t want to take the risk of losing our property.
  

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  Ask the plumber: Toilet seat requires careful selection
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM I know this sounds like a basic question, but I want to make sure I get things right. My wife informed me that my job was to get a new toilet seat. Can you give me some tips? What type of material should the seat be made of? Plumber Ed Del Grande answers reader questiopns.
  

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  Toronto building bubble may strain mortgages
  Feb 19, 2012 12:00 AM With more skyscrapers and high-rises under construction than any North American city, Toronto may be headed for a U.S.-style correction as prices rise and household borrowing hits a record.
  

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  Retirement communities bustle with events, camaraderie
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM On cold winter days, those approaching retirement love to contemplate moving to a sunny, warm climate where they don’t have to contend with cold and snow. But when pushed to actually make the decision to leave the Chicago area, relatively few of those dreamers actually move away. Most find it difficult to leave family, friends, doctors and churches to start a new life where they know no one. Others simply love the cultural, shopping and athletic offerings of this world-class city and are reluctant to leave them. Still others choose to have two homes and split their time.
  

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  When Granny is nanny — making shared child care work
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Rosa Feddersen and her husband bought their dream retirement home on a lake in Oklahoma City five years ago. He, a pilot for US Airways, was nearing the end of his career, and the area had everything the couple wanted. But when they learned their first grandchild was on the way in 2009, their agenda changed. After pleas from their daughter, they moved back to Pennsylvania to help with the baby. Their daughter and son-in-law are both surgeons, and Feddersen sometimes watches her granddaughter, Nora, 70 hours a week. While it’s a lot of work, she says the arrangement seems to be working for everyone. One reason: When it comes to taking care of baby, parents and grandparents try to stay out of each other’s way. “When I’m watching her, they pretty much understand that what I say goes,” Feddersen says. “But when they’re home, I totally back off.”
  

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  Specialists in late-life downsizing on the rise
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Carol Gilbert remembers well the heartache and hassle of watching her aging parents struggle to remain in their house of 45 years; the desperate, last-minute calls for help and her dad’s isolation as her mom’s health declined. She also remembers the frustration of going through their things once they finally agreed to relocate to a senior care facility nearby in San Mateo, Calif. “I must have gone up to the house every Saturday for a year helping them sort through their stuff,” Gilbert said. “I couldn’t get my mother to make decisions or really do much each visit.” Once settled in the smaller space, surrounded by peers, her father’s burden lifted. He got his wish to remain with his wife and began enjoying life again at 86.
  

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  Home inspector: Roofer wants more money for bad job
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Q. Last summer, we hired a contractor to put a new roof on our leaky garage. When he was finished, the final cost was higher than the original estimate because the contractor had to remove the old layers of roofing. Months later, the first rain came and the roof leaked in several places. Home inspector Barry Stone answers your questions.
  

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  The nation’s housing: Weighing new versus a foreclosed home
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Homebuilders are switching tactics and confronting head-on one of their biggest nemeses: foreclosed houses that not only lure buyers away with deeply discounted prices but simultaneously depress the appraisal values of newly built homes. They say the time has come to stop being passive and to begin aggressively educating buyers about the often hidden costs of buying foreclosures.
  

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  About Real Estate: Love and real estate can be a complex marriage
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Cupid is the god of love in Roman mythology, but his arrow can’t pierce core real estate laws.
  

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  Tips for properly thawing frozen pipes
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM We take for granted that when a faucet is turned on, water will come out. But in the wintertime, freezing pipes can keep that from happening. It’s not only inconvenient, but it can cause a lot of damage to your home. Thawing the pipes is when accidents happen, so here are some tips to help you thaw your pipes carefully, avoiding damage.
  

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  Mortgage Professor: Refinance or modify while it’s still possible
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Interest rates have been very low for several years, and right now they are lower than ever, yet millions of mortgage borrowers who could profit from a refinance haven’t.
  

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  Condo talk: Use of committees and commissions-part 2
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM Last week, I discussed committees, and how they are established by the board of an association. Today, I will address the specific authority of committees and commissions, how to establish commissions, and what an association can do to revise its governing documents if they do not authorize committees.
  

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  Industry Insider: Reuse a hot construction trend
  Feb 18, 2012 12:00 AM The more complicated the deal, the better, as far as Tom Omundson is concerned. Omundson, president of TOCO LLC of Chicago, relishes figuring out the best use for existing buildings and coming up with new developments for vacant land.
  

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  Neighborhood profile: Spring Beach
  Feb 17, 2012 12:00 AM When Shirley Rochford came out to Cary’s Spring Beach area from Chicago to attend a family picnic, she noticed a little house on the market that she liked. She and her husband Bill Boetsch bought it in 1962. The attraction? The Fox River.
  

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  NYC apartment sells for $88 million
  Feb 16, 2012 12:00 AM
  

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  Suburbs take lead in building, selling new homes again
  Feb 15, 2012 12:00 AM New homes are being built and sold again around the suburbs, about four years after the free-falling local housing market forced a number of homebuilders into bankruptcy and turned stalled developments into abandoned eyesores. “The market is not up dramatically, but up slightly and, really, there's only one way to go at this point,” said John Lawrence Wozniak, president of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chicago.
  

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  Staging for the sale is key in a slow housing market
  Feb 12, 2012 12:00 AM Even if your home is cute, cute, cute, a visit from a stager might be a good idea before putting it on the market, says a local real estate agent.